Re: [PATCH v14 07/23] x86/virt/tdx: Add skeleton to enable TDX on demand

From: Nikolay Borisov
Date: Wed Oct 18 2023 - 05:14:58 EST




On 17.10.23 г. 13:14 ч., Kai Huang wrote:
To enable TDX the kernel needs to initialize TDX from two perspectives:
1) Do a set of SEAMCALLs to initialize the TDX module to make it ready
to create and run TDX guests; 2) Do the per-cpu initialization SEAMCALL
on one logical cpu before the kernel wants to make any other SEAMCALLs
on that cpu (including those involved during module initialization and
running TDX guests).

The TDX module can be initialized only once in its lifetime. Instead
of always initializing it at boot time, this implementation chooses an
"on demand" approach to initialize TDX until there is a real need (e.g
when requested by KVM). This approach has below pros:

1) It avoids consuming the memory that must be allocated by kernel and
given to the TDX module as metadata (~1/256th of the TDX-usable memory),
and also saves the CPU cycles of initializing the TDX module (and the
metadata) when TDX is not used at all.

2) The TDX module design allows it to be updated while the system is
running. The update procedure shares quite a few steps with this "on
demand" initialization mechanism. The hope is that much of "on demand"
mechanism can be shared with a future "update" mechanism. A boot-time
TDX module implementation would not be able to share much code with the
update mechanism.

3) Making SEAMCALL requires VMX to be enabled. Currently, only the KVM
code mucks with VMX enabling. If the TDX module were to be initialized
separately from KVM (like at boot), the boot code would need to be
taught how to muck with VMX enabling and KVM would need to be taught how
to cope with that. Making KVM itself responsible for TDX initialization
lets the rest of the kernel stay blissfully unaware of VMX.

Similar to module initialization, also make the per-cpu initialization
"on demand" as it also depends on VMX being enabled.

Add two functions, tdx_enable() and tdx_cpu_enable(), to enable the TDX
module and enable TDX on local cpu respectively. For now tdx_enable()
is a placeholder. The TODO list will be pared down as functionality is
added.

Export both tdx_cpu_enable() and tdx_enable() for KVM use.

In tdx_enable() use a state machine protected by mutex to make sure the
initialization will only be done once, as tdx_enable() can be called
multiple times (i.e. KVM module can be reloaded) and may be called
concurrently by other kernel components in the future.

The per-cpu initialization on each cpu can only be done once during the
module's life time. Use a per-cpu variable to track its status to make
sure it is only done once in tdx_cpu_enable().

Also, a SEAMCALL to do TDX module global initialization must be done
once on any logical cpu before any per-cpu initialization SEAMCALL. Do
it inside tdx_cpu_enable() too (if hasn't been done).

tdx_enable() can potentially invoke SEAMCALLs on any online cpus. The
per-cpu initialization must be done before those SEAMCALLs are invoked
on some cpu. To keep things simple, in tdx_cpu_enable(), always do the
per-cpu initialization regardless of whether the TDX module has been
initialized or not. And in tdx_enable(), don't call tdx_cpu_enable()
but assume the caller has disabled CPU hotplug, done VMXON and
tdx_cpu_enable() on all online cpus before calling tdx_enable().

Signed-off-by: Kai Huang <kai.huang@xxxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Kirill A. Shutemov <kirill.shutemov@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>


With the latest explanation from Kai :

Reviewed-by: Nikolay Borisov <nik.borisov@xxxxxxxx>